STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- Bumping heads on budget bill

Monday

Trace amounts of bad blood were left spattered on the pages of a budget bill passed by the Legislature last week, and it wasn't just the corn starch remnants of a Halloween costume gone awry.

A recap and analysis of the week in state government.

Trace amounts of bad blood were left spattered on the pages of a budget bill passed by the Legislature last week, and it wasn't just the corn starch remnants of a Halloween costume gone awry.

House and Senate Ways and Means Chairs Rep Jeffrey Sanchez and Sen. Karen Spilka managed to put aside their differences after weeks of stalemate and come to an agreement over legislation allocating the $129 million needed to shut the book on fiscal 2017, which ended four months ago.

The bill signed by acting Gov. Karyn Polito Nov. 3 made Massachusetts the first state in the country to ban bump stocks -- devices used to accelerate a gun's firing rate -- since the Las Vegas mass shooting a month ago. And it included $3 million for a youth violence prevention program that Sanchez had made a priority even before a 16-year-old was gunned down in his Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

The path to yes, however, was fraught with private backbiting and public statements of frustration that caused the comptroller's office to miss its annual statutory Halloween deadline to file critical financial reports.

The Democratic infighting contributed to Massachusetts not filing year-end financial documents on time for the second time in three fiscal years.

Sanchez's statement after the agreement was reached seemed to try to clear the air, thanking Spilka for being a partner in the legislation. But the idea that this was nothing personal, just business, was a hard one to swallow after weeks of bickering through the media.

Sen. Michael Barrett did little to alter the narrative of tension between the branches when he took an unsolicited swipe at the House hours before they were set to debate a bill that would commit Massachusetts to the goals of the Paris Climate accord.

Barrett equated the bill to "running in place," and said more was necessary if the state was to be a leader in combating climate change. Rep. Dylan Fernandes, the freshman Democrat and sponsor of the Paris bill, didn't disagree with Barrett, but said he never pretended that his bill was anything more than what it was -- a statement of principle to the "climate deniers" in Washington.

Baker held vigil for the budget through Oct. 31, and then hopped a jet to Palm Springs in California for the rest of the week for a little downtime with his wife before the sprint to the playground. Perhaps they were able to discuss his re-election plans.

An extended holiday recess for legislators looms after Nov. 15.

Baker's break was not all play, as he phoned in to the White House's opioid task force meeting for the release of the commission's final recommendation. Casino mogul Steve Wynn's loose lips about a meeting between himself and the governor in Las Vegas last month that did not make it onto the governor's schedule will also have some questioning if he takes any meetings in the desert this week.

Baker, like previous governors, does not list private meetings on his schedule, whether they happen in his office or across the country.

Newton Mayor Setti Warren blasted Baker for the "secret meeting" with Wynn, who is developing a casino in Everett and donates heavily to Republicans, but would not commit himself to a public documenting of meetings he might take as governor if elected next year. "Meetings between the governor and a casino owner with billions of dollars of business before the state to discuss 'economic development' are not private," Warren spokesman Kevin Franck said.

With relatively little to show for the first 10 months of the two-year session, both the House and Senate appear to be gearing up to pack in what they can in the final week-and-a-half.

The Senate scheduled a two-day debate on sweeping health care reform legislation; the House put itself on track to debate criminal justice reform the week of Nov. 13.

If the House criminal justice plan can clear that body, the two branches could spend the holiday break in negotiations over mandatory minimum sentencing, bail reform and other proposals to shift the system away from incarceration toward rehabilitation.

One wild card for the final 10 days of formals is a bill that would guarantee free coverage of birth control for women in Massachusetts. The Financial Services Committee released the legislation Nov. 3 after receiving a report last week it was waiting on from the Center for Health Information and Analysis.

The CHIA reported said mandating health insurance coverage of birth control without co-payments would add between 7 cents and 20 cents to individual monthly premiums. "It wouldn't be the highest per-member per-month we've ever done, but it would certainly not be the lowest," co-chair Rep. Aaron Michlewitz said.

The North End Democrat and his Senate co-chair Sen. Jamie Eldridge asked CHIA to expedite its review of the bill so the Legislature would have an option to respond swiftly to the actions of President Donald Trump, who rolled back regulations in the Affordable Care Act to make it easier for employers to opt out of the birth control coverage mandate on moral grounds.

Reports of sexual harassment under the Golden Dome and in the nearby drinking establishments were never far from mind last week as former Senate President Therese Murray's official portrait unveiling drove home just how male-dominated Beacon Hill has been throughout history.

Murray carried great pride in her status as the first woman to hold the office during her years in the big chair, and remarked at the ceremony that she hoped her presence on the walls of the Senate Reading Room wielding the gavel would serve as an inspiration to other young women in the business.

Incidentally, the artwork that adorns many of the hallways of the State House has become part of the culture debate since the Globe first published its story about harassment in the building.

Reps. Lori Ehrlich and Tricia Farley-Bouvier have called for the display of art more representative of the contributions women have made to Massachusetts history, and not just the lineup of older white men who happened to be governors for hundreds of years.

Murray's will be the second portrait of a woman, along with former Gov. Jane Swift, to hang in the State House.

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